Cylinders of an engine may be selectively deactivated to conserve fuel while other cylinders continue to operate to propel a vehicle and to keep the engine rotating. The cylinders may be deactivated by holding intake and exhaust valves of deactivated cylinders in a closed state over an entire engine cycle (e.g., two revolutions for a four stroke engine). Efficiency of cylinders that remain activated increases by improving thermal efficiency and reducing engine pumping losses. Selected cylinders may be deactivated and reactivated responsive to driver demand torque and other vehicle operating conditions. For example, at low engine loads, an eight cylinder engine may combust air and fuel in four cylinders. On the other hand, the same eight cylinder engine may combust air and fuel in all eight cylinders during high driver demand conditions. In this way, the engine may enter and exit cylinder deactivation modes to accommodate different driving conditions.
Over time and varying vehicle operating conditions, the possibility of degradation of one or more valve actuators that selectively activate and deactivate engine cylinders may increase. Therefore, it may be desirable to determine whether or not engine valve actuators are operating as desired. However, it may be difficult to determine whether or not valve actuators are deactivating valves as desired while the engine is operating without disturbing passengers of a vehicle that includes the engine. Further, a signal to noise ratio for determining cylinder valve actuator degradation may be low while the engine is operating because exhaust gas recirculation (EGR), barometric pressure, and other engine operating conditions may affect the signal to noise ratio of signals used to determine valve actuator degradation.
The inventor herein has recognized that an engine's valves may not activate and deactivate as desired from time to time and has developed an engine operating method, comprising: rotating an engine without combusting air and fuel in a direction reversed from a direction the engine rotates while combusting air and fuel via a controller; and adjusting operation of the engine in response to engine air flow less than a first threshold or greater than a second threshold while deactivating valves of one or more engine cylinders.
By rotating an engine in a reverse direction and measuring engine air flow while the engine is rotating, it may be possible to provide the technical result of determining whether or not one or more cylinder valve actuator mechanisms is degraded. In particular, rotating an engine in a reverse direction while engine cylinders are not combusting air and fuel may provide an increased amount of air flow through the engine as compared to if the engine were rotated in a forward direction because of intake and exhaust valve timing. The increased air flow may provide an improved signal to noise ratio so that valve actuator diagnostics may be improved. Further, a higher air flow rate through the engine may allow the engine to be rotated at a lower speed while still being able to detect cylinder valve actuator degradation reliably.
The present description may provide several advantages. In particular, the approach may provide improved diagnostics of engine cylinder valve deactivation devices. Additionally, the approach may allow the engine to rotate at lower speeds when diagnostics are performed so that the diagnostics may be less noticeable. Further, the approach may conserve battery power by performing diagnostics at lower engine speeds when the engine is not combusting air and fuel and is rotated via an electric machine.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.